On The Radar: Twitter Launches SMB Advertising in UK & Ireland

Last Thursday, Twitter rather quietly opened the doors of their advertising platform to UK and Irish small businesses.

Prior to this, the service was only been available to businesses in the US, who were given the keys to the inner sanctum in April of this year.

In only a few months, hundreds of small businesses who realized the true potential of the service and understood social advertising, really got their target audience talking.

The result? Their engagement rocketed and an army of new advocates were born.

Some Twitter case studies have even shown increases in Follower numbers of up to 250% through the use of promoted tweets and promoted accounts.

So what is a promoted tweet?

A promoted tweet is, in essence, a tweet like any other. The key difference is that rather than being seen by your existing Followers, it will be displayed to potential Followers as well, based upon targeting parameters such as keywords, location, user device, or similarity to existing Followers.

What about a promoted account?

A promoted account is one that is suggested to users who are similar to the people who already follow and engage with your business. By paying for your account to be promoted, it will be suggested by Twitter to users who are likely to click the Follow button.

As with tweets, the promotion can also be targeted to gender, geography and general interests, so you can get the most out of your advertising budget.

Is it really that easy?

Well, yes and no. Promoting an account is easy. Promoting a tweet is easy. However, choosing the right tweet to promote is the difficult bit.

Just like any party, not everyone gets how to play the social game effectively. So, more than ever, a considered social strategy can really elevate your brand’s position in the hierarchy.

It’s not simply a case of buying your way into the in crowd. The only way you and your brand will get results is by knowing who you are, whose crowd you want to be in and what you can offer them to ensure you can stay there.